Field
One or more embodiments relate to a stent for inhibiting restenosis and stimulating reendothelialization, and a method of manufacturing the stent.
Description of the Related Art
A coronary heart disease (CHD) is a disease which occurs in the blood vessels around the heart, causing blood supply failure to cardiac muscles. Treatments of coronary heart diseases include bygraft surgery to transplant new blood vessels, balloon angioplasty, stenting, and the like.
A stent is a cylindrical, tubular precision medical device used to normalize blood flow failure by being inserted into a narrowed or clogged blood vessel site resulting from the clogging of blood vessels due to a disease or blood clots (thrombi). Stenting is more convenient than surgical treatments, and leads to a reduced restenosis incidence than that of balloon angioplasty, and thus recently is increasingly used.
However, about 20% of the patients who had stenting was found to have neointimal hyperplasia and restenosis that blood vessel narrowing occurs again, due to excessive proliferation of smooth muscle cells around the stent. When a bare metal stent is inserted, this stent may be completely covered by endothelial cells in a predetermined time from the insertion and not exposed within the blood vessel (reendothelialization). However, when a drug-eluting stent is inserted, this stent may not be covered by endothelial cells and be exposed within the blood vessel, causing platelet aggregation and consequential stent thrombosis.
Therefore, there is a need to develop a stent for inhibiting restenosis and stimulating reendothelialization.